Introduction
Welcome to the George Mason University Libraries tutorial on locating journal sources from citations found in a bibliography or references cited page. This tutorial offers an example citation, but you are welcome to follow along with your own citation.
Finding Full Text
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Sign in to your Mason Libraries' account by clicking on "My Library Accounts" from the upper right corner of the library homepage. Here we use an article from the Journal of Policy History as an example.
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Starting at the Mason Libraries' homepage, click on the blue "Journals" button.
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Search for your journal title and select it from the results page. Click on the “available online” function to access it.
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Identify the date(s) you need. In the example, the publication date is 2009.
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Review the resources in the list for the correct publication date. In the example, all resources include 2009 coverage dates.
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Locate the list of volumes and/or issues. In the example, it is the hyperlinked text "All issues."
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Locate the specific article from the publication's record and browse until you find the correct date, volume and issue. The example lists volume 21, issue 1.
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You can also search the article title with the journal's search bar (if available).
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If you are unable to find your article, you can place an interlibrary loan request. To learn how to request interlibrary loans, see the interlibrary loan tutorial in the tutorials page under "Library Services".
Download this tutorial
We have a downloadable and printable copy of this handout available for your use.
Additional Questions and Help
If you have trouble or questions about finding the full text of articles, ask a librarian.

Finding Full Text Journal Articles From Citations by The Teaching and Learning Team
by The Teaching & Learning Team is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.